Cut Costs

Reports said that shipping and business groups say a proposed merger of New Zealand's largest ports will cut costs.
The Ports of Auckland and Ports of Tauranga say they are in advanced discussions about working together, making savings for exporters through a more efficient supply chain.
The Employers' & Manufacturers' Association agrees the merger has the potential to reduce costs.
The association says they could keep the land but publicly float the combined company, freeing ratepayers' money for investment in other areas.
The talks come as Danish shipping company Maersk reviews the option of dealing with a single port in the North and South Islands.
Source: Radio NZ

South Korea’s major shipping companies benefited in 1999 from freight rate hikes and lower foreign debt service costs resulting from the won’s surge against the dollar, analysts said. However, they said, expectations of rising shipping capacity following more deliveries of new ships would weigh down the growth of revenues for shipping firms this year.
Container shipping rates rose about six percent on average last year, which is in line with the country’s recovering exports, one analyst said

Two major clean oil product tanker operators will reportedly form a vessel pool to market each other's ships on opposite sides of the world. Japan's NYK Line and International Product Tankers Ltd. (IPC), a joint venture company formed by OMI Corp. and Osprey Maritime Ltd., said the agreement would cut costs and improve services.
Under the agreement, IPC will market NYK's fleet of product tankers to European and U.S. customers when positioned in European or Atlantic waters

The Pentagon is widely expected to clear the proposed $2.1 billion merger between the two remaining U.S. builders of nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers, eliminating prospects of any future competition between former rivals. Defense Department officials recognize the peculiarities of the situation faced by General Dynamics Corp. and Newport News Shipbuilding Inc., according to antitrust lawyers, industry consultants and Wall Street analysts. With only one major customer -- the U.S

The five bright red tugs operating at the Sullom Voe Terminal are soon to display the blue and white corporate colors of their new owner. Shetland Towage, a company wholly owned by the Shetland Charitable Trust, was incorporated into the Shetland Islands Council's ports and harbor operation on February 10, in a bid to streamline operations at the harbor and to cut costs. The first of the tugs is expected to be back in the isles from dry-docking in late June

Shipbuilder Halter Marine Group Inc. confirmed it is in talks with an oilfield service company about a possible stock-for-stock merger.
The company, which in January announced a sweeping restructuring to cut costs, said it cannot assure the talks will lead to a transaction. It also said it cannot guarantee a deal, if any, would represent a premium over current market prices.
Halter Marine, which also builds offshore drilling rigs and engineered products serving the offshore energy industry

According to www.dailypress.com, a draft Pentagon blueprint renews a plan to shrink the Navy's fleet of aircraft carriers, barely a month after Congress blocked the move.
Excerpts of the draft Quadrennial Defense Review, conducted every four years to guide military strategy, call for a fleet of 11 aircraft carriers - or one fewer than exist today. The Navy pushed hard last year to reduce the fleet by mothballing the USS John F. Kennedy, based in Mayport, Fla

Cummins Inc. today released its expectation for improved profitability despite essentially flat revenues for 2002. Cummins Chairman and CEO, Tim Solso, said, "continuing efforts to reduce costs will enable Cummins to achieve a profitability improvement over 2001 with little to no improvement in revenue."
During the October 11th teleconference on third quarter earnings Solso noted that rapid market changes in the U.S

At present we are seeing lower oil prices as a function of softer demand growth in both Europe and China combined with recent output increases from OPEC, particularly Libya, together with the ongoing surge in US production, notes Douglas-Westwood in the latest 'DW Monday'.
In the short-term, supply could start to be taken out of the market quite quickly if lower price levels are sustained – we have earlier noted that returns for most E&P companies have been eroded by

One of a series of management improvement measures adopted by Petrobras in the last two years, the Logistics Infrastructure Optimization Program (Infralog) should generate approximately R$1.8 billion (US$719 million) in savings for the company from the time it was created (November 2012) until the end of this year. By 2013, the program had already cut costs by around R$800 million. Petrobras’ target is to save R$4 billion (US$1

Layoffs at Newport News Shipbuilding could top 1,500 from now through 2016 as the company copes with a temporary drop in work, the company president told employees this week.
In a letter to the workforce, President Matt Mulherin said layoffs will exceed 500 people this year

Two soybean cargoes have recently departed from a new terminal in northeast Brazil operated by VLI and local trader Multigrain, the latest option in the region as exporters look for alternatives to Brazil's overcrowded southern ports.

Pacific Basin Shipping cut its half-year underlying losses by 32 per cent to US$14.6 million from a year ago, thanks to stringent cost-cutting efforts that helped it mitigate an anaemic dry-commodities shipping market.
Hong Kong-listed Pacific Basin

Brazilian mining company Vale SA was downgraded late on Thursday by the Standard & Poor's credit-rating agency over concern that a drop in iron ore prices will erode revenue at the world's largest producer of the main steel-making ingredient.

South Korea's leading shipping line Hanjin Shipping Co has swung to the black in the first quarter from a year earlier thanks to lower fuel costs and better streamlined shipping routes.
Net profit came to 22.91 billion won (US$21 million) in the January-March period

British engineering group Rolls-Royce (RR.L) said it would cut 600 jobs in its Norwegian-focused marine business in response to the lower oil price, a move it said would have a "broadly neutral" impact on 2015 profits.
Rolls-Royce is in the middle of a cost-saving plan in its

Thailand and China have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in Guangzhou to jointly cut a shipping passage across Kra Isthmus in southern Thailand, the narrowest part of the Malay Peninsula.
The canal, located at Kra Isthmus

Businesses are operating in tough economic times, with budgets being significantly cut during the current industry downturn. Unfortunately, when lowering costs is a key priority, learning and development budgets have historically been one of the first areas to take the hit

Fleet management software developer Tero Marine has served the shipping industry for nearly three decades with a product range led by its software suite TM Master, now a leading fleet management brand with more than 2,000 licenses worldwide.

As many companies continue the fight for survival in the challenging market conditions, shipping and offshore recruitment specialist Blue Ocean Marine & Offshore Solutions (BOMOS) announced its strategy to focus much stronger on cost reductions.

Odfjell today signed an agreement for the sale of Bow Balearia, Bow Bracaria and Bow Brasilia, all 5,800 dwt, built 1997/1998.
The vessels are the last remaining vessels within Odfjell’s trade in the European short sea market

As the demand for mega vessels has increased, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. expects mega- sized container ships to lead global orders until early next year as shipping companies seek ways to cut costs, reports Bloomberg. Hyundai Heavy is the world’s biggest shipbuilder.

Integration of Aveva and DNV GL's Sesam Reduces Costs in Maritime and Offshore Engineering. Engineers designing ship hulls and offshore floaters can now save time and money in the early design phase due to a breakthrough allowing transfer of 3D models from AVEVA Marine to Sesam GeniE

The hulking backhoe dredges up rocks and silt from the shallows of the muddy Magdalena River in the first laborious step to transform the waterway into an engine of economic growth.
The excavation along a verdant stretch near Barrancabermeja, an inland oil and coal hub